Actor Mel Ferrer dies at 90
Starred in 'Lili,' 'The Sun Also Rises'
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Ferrer died at his ranch near Santa Barbara, according to family spokesman Mike Mena.
Ferrer’s most impressive film role came in 1953 in “Lili.” He played a rippled carnival puppeteer with whom a French orphan (played by Leslie Caron) falls in love.
He also won critical acclaim as Luis Bello in Robert Rossen’s 1951 depiction of the public and private life of a bullfighter in “The Brave Bulls” and starred opposite Hepburn in 1956’s “War and Peace.”
In later years, he turned more to directing and producing for movies and TV.
He and Hepburn had become engaged in 1954 when they appeared together in the New York play “Ondine.” They married later that year in Burgenstock, Switzerland.
The pair divorced in 1968 and Ferrer married his fourth wife, Elizabeth Soukhotine, in 1971. She survives him.
Ferrer and Hepburn costarred in a television version of “Mayerling,” and Ferrer directed Hepburn in the 1959 film “Green Mansions.”
He also produced one of Hepburn’s greatest film triumphs, 1967’s “Wait Until Dark.”
Born in Elberon, N.J., Ferrer was the son of a doctor from Puerto Rico and a socialite mother, and attended Princeton U.
After winning a playwright’s award in his sophomore year, Ferrer left Princeton to write a novel in Mexico. Instead he wrote a children’s book, “Tito’s Hats,” which was published by Doubleday.
He spent a year as a book editor in New York, then began his acting career as a dancer in Broadway musicals. He acted in plays and on radio and directed a Hollywood movie, “Girl of the Limberlost.”
Back in New York, he starred in the play “Strange Fruit,” about a lynching in the South, and directed Jose Ferrer (no relation) in “Cyrano de Bergerac.” His first major film role was in 1949’s “Lost Boundaries,” playing a light-skinned African-American doctor who passed for white.
Ferrer’s commanding presence and well-modulated voice made him ideal for characters of certitude and decision. His films included “Rancho Notorious,” “Scaramouche,” “Knights of the Round Table” (as King Arthur), “Born to Be Bad,” “The Longest Day,” “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and “El Greco,” which was made in Spain with Ferrer as co-producer and actor in the title role.
Survivors include his wife, five children and several grandchildren.
